Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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PEHESOR AC TE 5 of these forces I know and the results I recognize, but for the most part they are unknown, and the authors of the forces are unknown. Before most of you were born a man began to work in your be- half. He has known but a few of you, and most of you do not know him even by sight. Yet he has been working directly in your welfare. Through his intelligent effort, by the use of his time, by the exertion of his energy, buildings have been erected in which you could sit and study, teachers of high grade have been selected and paid, that you might have the best of instruction. His thought and effort went into this beautiful building in which you have had such an enjoyable high school life. Whatever your superintendent has been able to add to your happiness and profit, has in some measure depended on the cord- ial support which Mr. Lovell has given him in the Board of Education. You are what you are, in some measure, each one of you, because that man his given of his time and his ability to build up the school system of Plainfield. The body, which was the visible instrument of his work, is now still. ‘Tomorrow it will be laid away in the grave. Ina few years it will be crumbled to dust, just as that old fence which ran through the pasture crumbled to dust years ago. But as that fence has perpetu- ated itself in the row of trees which grew up under its protection, so Mr. Lovell will still live in the influences which he has created, in this beautiful building, in the school system of Plainfield, and more than all else in the heart and life of each one of you who has been influenced by all these forces which his life set in motion. In a few years he will have been forgotten, by all but those who loved him most. A little later he will be known only as a memory, only as a part of the history of the city. But as you pass on to others the influence which he has brought to bear on your life, so he will still live. In European countries, on the death of the monarch, it is the cus- tom to say, “THE KING is dead. LONG live the KING.” So, as I th ink of tte influences which the life of this man has brought into your lives, making you better and stronger and more efficient in the service of the world; as I think how you will pass these influences on to the generations that come after you, I may truly say “THE KING is dead, but the KING still lives and will live for many years to come.”

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4 THE ORACLE it not been for his wise Counsel and help we would not be able to icok back on Senior year with so much pleasure. So, in leaving, we wish him the greatest happiness and success in the future, and hope that other Senior classes will experience his kindly help: In Remembrance The Following Tribute was Delivered by DOCTOR MAXSON to the Pupils of the High School on the Death ef Mr. LEANDER N. LOVELL In a few weeks the trees will be putting out their leaves, the flowers will be coming into bloom. What is the power that drives these leaves out on the trees, that causes the flowers to bloom? We cannot seé it, we cannot feel it, but we know it is there because we see the results in the beauty that clothes the earth in spring. As you came to school this morning, you saw the flag waving from its staff. What causes the flapping of that beautiful bunting? We cannot see it, and yet we know the force is there by the motion of the flag. When I walk in the fields, f see a row of trees, sassafras and oak and other self-sown trees, running straight as a line through the meadows. How it is that these self-sown trees should make so perfect a line? Years ago there was an old fence running through that field and under its protecting influence the seeds that drifted in on the wings of the zephyrs took root and sprang up and grew, and, now, altho the fence has been gone for many a year, I know it once stood there by the result which I see. So, all through the physical world, there are numberless forces which we do not see, which we do not feel, of which for the most part we are unconscious, that produce effects. In like manner, in the spirit- ual and mental world there are influences of which we are for the most part unconscious, that still produce powerful effects on us and all those about us. I am what I am in large measure because of the number- less forces that have been impinging on me all these many years. Some

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6 he ORACEE Good Bye, P. H. S. The class of 1912 has finished its four years in Plainfield High School, and we, its members, must now take our places in the ranks of the Alumni. We have had a happy time here, and now as we are leaving, we realize why we have been so happy. It is because we have been busy, so busy that we have had no time to brood over petty griev- ances, no time to criticize those about us. (There have been lessons to learn, and besides, we had no idea of omitting any of the custom- ary sports. It is not necessary to say that our class has been fond of dramatics. And we have entered into the various phases of school activities wholeheartedly. If we have done fairly well in most of the things we have attempted, and exceptionally well in one or two, then we are glad. In the years to come, we shall count it a privilege to feel a per- sonal interest in P. H. S., and we can only wish for the students of the future, that the life here will mean as much to them as it has to 1912. The Wisdom of the Simple Winner of the Babcock Prize Stanas leaned against the door of the cabin and listened to the voice of the girl. He, Perran Stanas, the wonder of the musical world, greatest critic of his time, composer of the most exquisite song of the last five decades, and the busiest manager in London, Berlin, and New York, had left everything and travelled swiftly into the heart of a wilder- ness to hear a Kentucky mountain girl sing a song. And why? Be- cause he needed a voice,—not merely a true voice, not merely a splen- did voice, but a thrilling, natural, living one. When a man has lived fifty years in this world of disillusionment, and especially when every hour of his time is crowded with work, he does not run off on wild goose chases for hundreds of miles, unless the need is urgent, and during the long, tedious journey Stanas’ mind was ill at ease and he doubted the wisdom of his action. For he had come,